Once communication connections have been set up, data reconciliation carried out, and the conversion tables created the EDI message link is constructed, which must be tested before its live commissioning. During testing EDI and the corresponding paper-based documents are used in parallel and the parties continue to regard the paper copy as the official version. If the parties accept test results as adequate, live commissioning of the EDI link can be carried out, which generally also means that from this point on only EDI documents will be distributed and will be regarded as the officially accepted documents.